A/N: Yo, it's been a few says how you guys holding up? I think I've let the cliffhanger stew long enough, so I won't keep you guys here any longer, enjoy the chapter!
"Come on Astrid," Hiccup breathed out raggedly "It's me, this isn't funny."
The blonde sat up abruptly "I'm pretty sure I've never seen you before in my life."
"Astrid, this is no time for a bad joke." Snotlout shot from a safe distance away, mostly avoiding his cousins wrath.
"You can't be…"Astrid frowned at him "Snotlout?"
"What you remember me but not him?!" Snotlout retorted angrily.
Astrid's head turned back to Hiccup "I've never seen him before."
Hiccup stumbled back to his feet, a few steps away from Astrid, her breath hitched at his facial expression "Astrid, please." He pleaded his eyes brimming with a flicker of light.
She stared at him silently, why did he looked betrayed? Why did Snotlout say she knew him, she was positive she'd never seen him. She looked around herself "Where are we? What happened to Berk?"
"Oh, Berk's fine, we've been on the frontline's fighting a fricken war against Dagur!" Snotlout shouted.
"Dagur as in the Berserker Chief's son? Aren't we allies?" Astrid asked clearly confused.
Snotlout's face lit suddenly as if an idea occurred to him "What do you remember?"
"There was a dragon raid a few days ago, there's some weird rumor going around that some crazy guys been attacking merchants in the forest." Astrid voiced simply, cocking her head to the side "Why?"
"So you don't even remember the dragons." Snotlout ran a hand through his hair, Hookfang padded up behind him and Astrid jumped to her feet.
"Snotlout look out!" She paused half way between Snotlout and where she had been laying down.
Snotlout rubbed the Nightmare's nose affectionately "Astrid, Berk's allied with the dragons now, that 'crazy guy' is him, Hiccup Haddock, Son of Stoick the Vast, the next damned chief, we beat the queen at the dragons nest and he tamed a Night Fury and we became a group that ride dragons and that's why we are at war with the Berserker's."
Astrid turned to look at the other boys back, he was hunched over, still as a statue "Lout and…you," He practically hissed as his eyes fell on her "We are going back to Berk."
Snotlout shifted uncomfortably "Something happen?"
A blue Terrible Terror perched itself on Hiccup's arm, in his other hand was a small piece of paper "Something, they aren't sure what, we need to head back."
Snotlout nodded, Astrid's eyes widened as she watched Hiccup, he scratched the Terror under the chin and gave his large black dragon, which she assumed was the Night Fury an affectionate rub on the head, he spoke to the dragon softly, she felt something rough nuzzle against her hand and she jerked it away and jumped a few feet away from the grey dragon.
She couldn't recognize it, but it was similar in appearance to the Night Fury, the colors being the only difference "Your…mine?"
The dragon snorted and inclined it's head, clearly irritated, the saddle on its back was simple enough to figure out, she felt familiarity when she sat atop the dragons back, she looked at the other two, her eyes fell over Hiccup who kept his back to her, her heart beat hard against her chest and her eyes grew dry.
The look on his face when he accepted that she had no memory of him was haunting, her own stomach turned uncomfortably and her chest ached painfully, she grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes.
She was a Hofferson, if she lost her memories she's simply take them back, not that she had any idea how she was going to do that, but if there was a way, no matter how hard it was, she'd do it.
His face swam through the fog of her mind again and she shook it away, she wouldn't gain anything worrying about him.
Hiccup kept his gaze focused firmly forward, he wouldn't accept something like this, Astrid Hofferson drowned in that gods forsaken ocean, the shell behind him just looked like her, that was it.
"I'm leaving the flight to you bud." Hiccup gave his dragon a light pat on the neck and tightened the straps around his legs, allowing him to lay against Toothless back without fear of falling off, he let his eyes drift close.
"This had better be for real Astrid." Snotlout growled at her, an anger she certainly wasn't used to him displaying.
"I swear Snotlout, I can't remember any of what you said, I know one thing for sure though," Snotlout lifted an eyebrow at her and she continued "He meant a lot to me before didn't he?"
Snotlout frowned and nodded his head.
"I also meant a lot to him right?" Astrid asked
Snotlout nodded again.
"My mind may not remember the details, but my feelings haven't forgotten anything, I'll find a way to beat this Snotlout, I promise." Astrid finished resolutely, eyes focusing on the horizon in front of her.
That seemed to appease Snotlout somewhat, he rolled his shoulders calmly and settled on the back of his dragon.
Fishlegs watched the horizon, squinting against the sun to try and get any extra information, he knew Hiccup would have received the message by now, so it was only a matter of time before the group returned to Berk, but he had a bad feeling and there had been a lot of bad omens around the village recently, it worried him.
He breathed an audible sigh of relief when a familiar black dot appeared on the horizon, he turned and shouted to Tuffnut.
"Hiccup's on his way, inform the chief!" He called
Tuffnut saluted haphazardly "Why do I have to do it?"
"If your gonna salute don't complain!" Fishlegs snapped.
"On it." Tuffnut responded before darting off.
It only took around five minutes for the team to touch down in the square.
Hiccup dismounted Toothless but made no movement to take off his helmet, Fishlegs frowned, it was almost like he was hiding behind it.
"Hiccup!" He called rushing over to meet him.
"Sorry Legs, I'm tired we flew all night can it wait?" His voice was hoarse and his tone was almost pleading, Fishlegs frowned out of concern, Hiccup's eyes looked almost dead, similar to they had when he had first gotten the prosthetic.
"Sure," Fishlegs nodded with a quick smile "The village'll still be here in a few hours, I'll make sure of that."
Hiccup nodded gratefully and moved passed Fishlegs, giving the blonde boy a light pat on the shoulder, he didn't speak as he moved passed him towards his house.
Fishlegs rounded on Snotlout and Astrid, the latter was looking around the village in obvious curiosity, as I seeing everything for the first time in her life "You…" He trailed off, looking at Astrid for a few seconds.
"I don't remember any of this." Astrid confirmed his suspicion strongly and Fishlegs ran a hand through his hair.
"This is bad," He groaned "I need Hiccup now, the village can't afford to have him mope around like this, we won't last."
"What's going on?" Snotlout asked quickly.
"Something big," Fishlegs responded flatly "We don't have a hope in hell if Hiccup doesn't help."
"I'll help any way I can, so at least fill us in." Astrid voiced simply, despite her head throbbing painfully, Berk was her home, that much she did remember and she certainly wouldn't let it be destroyed.
Fishlegs nodded "You guys should follow me then."
After Fishlegs gathered a few supplies in case of an emergency and the group set off, finding themselves in the caves that ran underneath Berk, Fishlegs paused and lit a lantern as they walked through the murky darkness, the small pool of light being the only source of light after they made a few turns.
"So, what are we doing in here?" Snotlout asked
Fishlegs lifted his hand and the lanterns light spread onto the roof of the cavern around them "That," A few set's of smaller holes spread around a single much larger one "They're Whispering Death holes from what I have gathered."
"Whispering Death's haven't been on Berk before to my memory." Astrid responded.
"Exactly, which means someone put them here." Fishlegs replied calmly.
"Dagur…or Alvin?" Snotlout asked.
"Dagur is against allying with dragons, my monies on Alvin but that isn't the most pressing concern, juvenile Whispering Death's aren't all that dangerous and we as Dragon Riders could easily lead them off the island, it's the bigger hole I'm more worried about." Fishlegs explained calmly
"Six holes, six riders," Astrid counted simply "So you planned to have Hiccup deal with the largest one?"
"He is the best rider and our leader, he'd likely volunteer." Fishlegs answered simply.
"We can't rely on Hiccup at the moment, we need to do something about this ourselves," Snotlout countered simply "Hiccup will come around, he always does but we don't have the luxury of waiting for that to happen."
Astrid watched the Jorgenson out of the corner of her eyes, the Snotlout she remembered was aggressive, stupid and completely devoid of anything even slightly respectful, she wondered how the other teens had changed in the time she didn't remember.
Above all of that, she wondered who Hiccup Haddock was.
Hiccup stared at the roof of his home without really seeing it, he sighed and grabbed his helmet, pulling it over his head and getting up off his bed, Toothless lifted his head in curiosity and Hiccup waved him back down "I'm just going out a bit, bud."
Toothless snorted and laid his head back down, Hiccup chuckled and glanced at his sword before shrugging and leaving out the back door and into the forest beyond the village.
He passed the spot he had once found Toothless, the forest having repaired most of the damage that had been inflicted by the dragons crash, he scaled back into the tree tops like he used too, stretching his arms out on either side of him as he balanced on thinner branches towards the top of the canopy, he found the clearing Astrid used to practice her axe throwing in, one of the first places he had ever spoken to her properly, he could practically see them sitting there, when he told her he wouldn't let her hit him, the trees in the clearing still held a few of the deeper gouges in the trees around him.
He ended in the cove where he had first met Toothless, placed the saddle on him, learn to fly with him, befriended him…the place he first kissed Astrid, his hand traced the scratch on his helmet over the left eye, she'd also given him this.
He eventually found himself on the edge of Berk, overlooking the ocean, it had gotten late, the sun was now dipping towards the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant hues of orange, blue and red, the hastily constructed grave marker he had made for Vonor, he traced the markings with his finger.
"Well I'm back here again," He voiced loudly "Feeling all sorry for myself again." He half chuckled.
"I finally made my place in Berk, forged it with my own hands, just like you used to tell me too," His voice cracked dangerously "I was so determined to protect it, I really thought I could do it."
His exhaled shakily "She completely forgot about me…What am I supposed to do about this? It's not something I can fix is it?! Memories aren't like swords, I can't just put something over the top of meld them back together! Please, tell me what the hell am I supposed to do?!"
His fingers dug into his legs painfully, he slammed his fist into the ground and just screamed, his frustration, anger, hurt, he screamed until his throat burned and he couldn't summon the energy to scream anymore.
He felt a little bit better, he could actually imagine the response, he could see Vonor in front of him, pacing a few steps left and right, she'd always take an extra step left when she figured something out, she'd prop her cane up on her shoulder and grin happily "You haven't done everything in your power if your still alive right?"
He could hear the old croaky voice, the chuckle she'd finish it with, every little detail, she'd tap him on the shoulder after that and say "One day, you might well find something that really is beyond your power to fix, but the moment you truly believe you are powerless you lose everything."
Hiccup rose to his feet and took a deep breath, he'd decided on what he was going to do, he smirked as he left the clearing, pausing before he reentered the forest and casting a glance back at the small grave marker "Thanks, I'll be sure to come back soon, I have to keep you updated right?"
The wind blew passed him in response and he continued into the forest quickly, Fishleg's called them back because the village was in trouble and that came first, he'd already wasted enough time being depressed.
Astrid massaged the top of her head and closed her eyes, leaning against one of the many trees that surrounded her, they had split up and begun searching around the forest for other Whispering Death holes, trying to figure out exactly where the dragons were headed on the island, but her head had been relentlessly pounding since she had woken up, she shook her head and pushed the pain to the back of her head as she pushed herself up to continue forward.
Her foot caught a root and she toppled forward, catching herself on her hands, the jar reverberated up her arms and she clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth, the ground in front of her cracked up, her eyes widened and she threw herself back as the ground burst upwards, Her vision blurred and she shook her head, the pain returning to the forefront of her mind with a vengeance, she bit her lip to stave off unconsciousness as her vision focused on the dragon in front of her.
It was still small, so fortunately for her it wasn't the thing that created the massive hole under Berk, but that didn't do much to comfort her as it roared at her, the darkened scales and small bat like wings on its back, it's incredibly number of teeth rotated around it's jaw relentlessly, it reminded her of a large eel, it's eyes were white and bulged out of the top of its head, but it clearly had no trouble seeing her.
It let out a screech and dived towards her, Astrid threw herself out of the way, the pounding in her head made her movements sloppy, she growled and looked for her axe, she found it resting on the ground on the opposite side of the Whispering Death, she got shakily to her feet trying and failing to ignore the pain in her head and the throbbing on her side.
She grit her teeth and charged forward, the Whispering Death recoiled in surprise before diving towards her, Astrid dropped down and slid underneath the dragon, she grabbed her axe and whirled around as it whipped its tail at her, her legs chose that moment to give out and she staggered forward as the set of spikes shot towards her.
Her eyes widened when a black blur slid passed her field of vision, two of the spikes reflected into the ground with a metallic clink, the third sound was definitely the sound of it striking the body and she winced as her eyes trailed up, she recognized the black armor, Hiccup turned his head enough to look down at her, she could tell he was smirking, although she wasn't entirely sure how she could tell since she could only see his eyes.
The sight of blood dripping to the ground caused her to speak "What are you doing!?"
"Sorry, right after I said I wouldn't get any more scars for you either," Hiccup chuckled, he pulled the spike from his side and winced "But I also decided I'd definitely protect you, so I guess this is part of that."
"I'm not some little girl you need to protect!" She shouted at him.
Hiccup braced against his shield as the Whispering Death charged him, he locked against the horn atop its nose and glared into the beasts eyes, locking his opposite hand against the shield he slammed up, throwing the whispering death backward into a tree, it let out a screech of pain and Hiccup pressed his free hand over his wound.
"I know that better than anyone else," He responded flatly "You're the strongest, most amazing person I've ever met, I don't protect you because you need me too, I protect you because I want too."
"You don't need to go so far for me, I don't even remember you." Astrid voiced dejectedly.
Hiccup slammed down as the Whispering Death charged him again, the blow struck the dragon and it slammed it's head into the ground, it recoiled with another screech, the last of the sunlight caught the edge of Hiccup's shield and reflected into the Dragon's eyes, it blinked and shook it's head before slamming back into the ground, a few minutes passed until Hiccup was sure it had left and he slumped down on the tree next to Astrid.
"I don't care, that you've lost all your memories of me," Astrid's eyes widened and Hiccup grit his teeth and continued "I'm going to protect you until you get them back and if that doesn't work I'll just make new ones because whether you like it or not you belong to me and I have belonged to you since I met you."
Astrid's eyes widened again when he reached out and grabbed her by the collar of her armor, he pulled her forward gently and pressed his lips against hers firmly "So you better prepare yourself." He warned playfully as he pulled back and his head lulled back against the tree.
Astrid shook herself hard to break free of the slight shock, that was too familiar, everything about it, she knew they had done that before, she pulled his helmet off quickly, his breathing was shallow and she frowned worriedly as she pulled off his chest piece and examined the wound, it wasn't that deep something like this shouldn't have knocked him out so quickly, she heard a quiet hiss and she turned around and frowned, something dripped off one of the spines that had been shot at Hiccup.
"Poison!" She exclaimed immediately, she looked back at the wound, it wasn't bleeding too profusely, but she'd attend to it just in case, infection was the biggest danger of small wounds like that, her hands shot to her belt immediately and she frowned.
She wasn't consciously aware she carried medical supplies, she shook the thought out of her head and mentally thanked herself for her foresight as she wrapped the wound, she tied a strip of cloth a little above the wound, hoping the tightness of the cloth would slow the flow of the poison.
"Hiccup Haddock, after a stunt like that you had better not die!" She growled at him as she tied his armor back on and grabbed his helmet, she looked around, she couldn't carry him and hope to get back to the village quickly.
The throbbing in her head abruptly stopped, her eyes widened slightly and she placed her hands over her mouth and let out a loud call, she recognized it from the dragon raids she remembered, the Nadder's call, it wasn't five minutes before the tree tops were split apart forcibly and a large blue Nadder landed in the clearing heavily.
"Stormfly!" Astrid paused, pieces of her memories started coming back to her, filling gaps in her mind abruptly, she grabbed Hiccup and pulled him over Stormfly's back, she climbed onto her dragons back and held Hiccup firmly "Come on girl." She gave the dragon a pet on the neck affectionately.
The familiar lurch of the take off seemed to break the floodgates that had been holding her memories back, she remembered the Outcast attack, when Hiccup had nearly died and her grip tightened on him, Dagur, the plan, the trap, she remembered hitting the water and feeling something slam into the back of her head, waking up on the beach.
Hiccup's face when she didn't remember him.
"I'm so sorry Hiccup." She grabbed him tightly as Stormfly descended into the village square.
"Astrid!" Fishlegs exclaimed as he rushed over to her "You were gone so long."
"I ran into one of the Whispering Death's Hiccup protected me but he got spiked, the spikes have poison on them," Astrid relayed quickly "I need to get him to Gothi."
Fishlegs nodded his head quickly, taking Hiccup and hoisting him up as if he was a small book, the two made their way into Gothi's hut quickly and Fishlegs placed Hiccup down on the bed and ran to get Gothi.
Astrid sank onto a nearby chair and watched Hiccup's face worriedly, she didn't know how dangerous the Whispering Death's venom was "I refuse to allow your last memory of me to be that."
Gothi and Fishlegs returned quickly, the old woman moved around the room, crushing a few different herbs quickly and placing them into a mug that she filled with water, Astrid propped Hiccup's head up and Fishlegs opened his mouth as Gothi poured the liquid into Hiccup's mouth, they let him back down and Astrid looked at Gothi worriedly.
"Whispering Death venom get's weaker the older they get, but it's not lethal, it's a paralytic poison, makes their prey pass out so they can be eaten easier, he isn't in any danger Astrid." Fishlegs reassured quickly.
Astrid sank into the chair with a sigh of relief "Good."
"Astrid you?" Fishlegs prompted with a raised eyebrow.
"I remember everything," Astrid smiled and tilted her head to the side "I just hope I can get Hiccup to forgive me."
"I'm sure he will, the moment he wakes up." Fishlegs reassured calmly as the two made their way out of the room, leaving Astrid alone with him.
"There's nothing to forgive anyway, it was my plan, my oversight and my fault." Hiccup voiced, one of his eyes cracked open to look at Astrid.
"You woke up pretty fast." She voiced simply.
"Call it stubbornness, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Hiccup replied quickly.
"Hiccup I'm so sorry, I can't imagine what I would do if you completely forgot about me," Astrid began "I'm just…" She trailed off when Hiccup smiled at her.
"I'm glad to have you back Astrid." He countered happily.
"That's it? You're not going to be mad at me? Demand something?" Astrid asked quickly.
"Why would I do that?" Hiccup asked quizzically.
"I can't just leave it at that, I have to do something for you!" Astrid exclaimed quickly.
Hiccup frowned, taking a moment to think about it "Huh, well how's that there is something you can do for me after all."
"Name it." She voiced resolutely.
"Marry me Astrid, not after the war, not after we deal with the Whispering Deaths, as soon as I can move." Hiccup responded with a wide grin.
"Is that all?" Astrid rested her forehead against his with a sigh of relief.
"What do you mean is that all? You're going to devote your entire life to me you know!?" He exclaimed with a chuckle.
"I'll allow it," She settled down beside him and nuzzled into his chest "As long as you devote the rest of yours to me, it's a give and take you know?"
Hiccup forced his neck to move to the side so he could place a light kiss on her forehead "My life already completely belonged to you anyway."
Hiccup slipped back into unconsciousness after that, Astrid followed him shortly after, Hiccup's body slowly regained its movement and his arm wrapped around Astrid's waist at some point during the night.
A/N: And that concludes this chapter, I think I used the appropriate amount of cheese, I'm quite happy with how it turned out, I wanted to focus this chapter not on Astrid who had forgotten her memories but on Hiccup who was forgotten, as I have lost my memories in the past, around the same time I lost most of the movement in my left leg actually, I also forgot a large period of my life, it was just gone, it'd be like reading a book but the middle is torn out and you just suddenly get to the ending without knowing how or why your there, it was an incredibly painful experience, the reactions of the people that I had completely forgotten were the worst part of the entire ordeal and even to this day there are just gaps, I know there should be something there but there isn't, but that is where the motivation for this chapter came from, as well as a little bit of trivia about my personal life.
Replies!
CerebralCortex31: All's well that ends well right?
Dante: K. Her memory loss isn't a plot point, it's more like a plot propeller but ok.
martindino123: Okay first off, don't flame me and hide behind 'no offence' Have to admit it's boring and annoying? You are directly insulting my writing, that I work hard on producing of course I am going to take offence to that, but just to act like a nice guy you add how I should continue the story to your tastes, do you hate the idea or like it make up your mind, it's not a fairy tale and memories don't come back because someone you were in love with kisses you, I know that from personal experience and I want to be clear on something else, Amnesia is very far from overused, in fact it's considered 'very difficult' to correctly write a character with Amnesia, so writers tend to avoid it for that reason I only used it because Astrid coming away from that completely unscathed is completely impossible, something else I've learned from personal experience, so I do hope the read wasn't 'tedious' and that you enjoyed this chapter more than the last one that I can't be sure if you liked or hated.
Hypernova5.0: Dagur will get's what coming to him don't you worry about that, you called it though, they returned to Berk!
ShadowSpirit020: You didn't expect her to walk away from that unscathed did you?
.2015: Course I did, do you now know who I am? :P
OechsnerC: What kind of self respecting writer writes predictably? Of course I'm going to keep you on your toes, writings not fun if I don't….I'm a little bit evil aren't?
Guest: Snotlout understood where Hiccup was coming from, I don't know how exactly I am going to go with their relationship from here so I'm giving it a little more thought.
AngryHenry: I feel obligated to ask why your angry? But Astrid's back! In all her ass-kicking glory so Dagur should tread carefully!
Iris Patton: Very few people have ever called me an 'Amazing' Writer, I consider myself relatively good at writing, but I just try really hard to write well, I want to make a career out of it so I can't afford to be half assed about it you know? You should know by now the moment you start to feel safe going into my chapters there's gonna be a cliffhanger, it's just par for the course, lure readers into false sense of security then strike…I'm definitely evil.
Carl Solo: I'm glad you enjoy this story so much, considering how many stories are on this website I'm quite flattered this is your favorite.
Husebad: At this point you really shouldn't be surprised :P
Rogue Deity Master: First of all, your name is pretty sick, second of all the amnesia's gone, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter :P
rere97maui: Glad your enjoying the story so far, I hope you continue to enjoy it!
EagleDragon15: I thought me being evil had already been established at this point, but I did kinda fix it so I'm sure it'll be fine.
As always I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I will see you guys in the next one, peace!